Moonlight And Mistletoe

‘Damn, I had forgotten your hands. Here.’ Guy removed two handkerchiefs from his coat pockets and wrapped them tenderly around each palm. ‘My valet believes a gentleman can never have too many clean handkerchiefs.’

Hester settled into the saddle and gathered the reins in her swathed hands. ‘You have not answered my question.’

Guy reached down, picked up the lantern, blew out the light and fixed it to his saddlebow. ‘I know why you feel you cannot marry me. It is of no matter; I do not regard it and neither should you. Now, come, home before Miss Prudhome sends the village constable and a search party.’

He knew? Hester rode automatically, her mind reeling. How could he know? Then she remembered him saying he would put investigations in train into the Nugents’ finances and debts. At the same time he must have had her own background looked into. So he had known for days about the scandal and her role in John’s life. But what did he know? The truth or the rumour?

Hester tried not to look at Guy’s shadowy figure as he rode, one hand relaxed on his thigh, his back erect, his breath clouding the freezing air. But she could not keep her eyes off him and the heat of his kisses glowed as though she had a hot brick snuggled under her shawl.

He loves me, he wants me, wants to marry me, even though he knows about John. Hector plodded on and Hester let herself slip into a sort of contented doze on his broad back. Where will we be married? Will his family like me? His sister sounds formidable. I will be a countess, of all the improbable things. A little gasp of laughter escaped Hester’s lips.

‘What are you laughing about, my love? You are home, come now, let me help you down.’ She let herself slip down into Guy’s arms. Her legs really did not want to support her, it was so safe and right to be held close against his chest. ‘Come on…’ she could hear the amusement in his voice ‘…you are asleep on your feet, but we need to get Jethro out here to look after Hector and I need to distract my footman who most certainly must not see you coming home at this hour wearing breeches!’

‘My lord, is she with you?’ The back door swung open and Jethro came out, lantern in hand. ‘There you are, Miss Hester! Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick, Miss Prudhome’s had the vapours and Susan was all set to send for the village constable.’

‘Miss Hester is quite safe, Ackland, although I think the sooner she’s in her bed the better. Where is my man?’

Hester found herself pushed gently into Susan’s arms as the maid appeared from behind Jethro, clucking with mingled anxiety and scolding. ‘You’re frozen, Miss Hester! You come along in, I’ve got the water on the range for a nice bath.’

Stumbling, Hester let herself be led inside, vaguely aware that Jethro was explaining that he’d sent a message to Parrott to keep the footman away. ‘Didn’t want him seeing Miss Hester coming back dressed like that, my lord.’

Susan pressed her down into a chair by the fire and went to heft a jug of water off the range. ‘You just sit there a minute while I fill your bath. I don’t know, what goings-on…’ she muttered on her way out into the hall. By the time she had lugged three jugs upstairs Hester was hearing the scolding through a warm mist of exhaustion, but she roused herself to smile sleepily at Guy when he came into the kitchen with Jethro on his heels.

He lifted her out of the chair as easily as though she were a child and carried her through the hall. ‘I seem to be making a habit of this, sweetheart,’ he murmured and she turned her head into the angle of his neck with a soft sigh of agreement. ‘And I have no doubt I’ll be chased out of your bedchamber just as briskly this time. Which is a pity.’ He lowered his voice and whispered, ‘Just when I would like to stay.’

Maria met them at the bedchamber door with the predicted outraged cluckings. ‘How could you allow her to do this sort of thing, my lord?’ she demanded.

Guy negotiated the steaming hip bath in the middle of the floor and lowered Hester on to the chaise. ‘If you have any suggestions for controlling Miss Lattimer, I would be most glad to hear them, ma’am. I have so far failed to discover anything that stops her doing precisely what she wants, the minute it occurs to her. Meanwhile, might I point out that her hands require cleaning and the application of some salve.’

Guy dropped to one knee beside Hester and took her hands gently in his. ‘I will send the footman over; they are overdue with the six roses.’

Hester shook her head. ‘No, they were here, propped against my door and tied with black ribbon. I have not had a chance to tell you.’

His lips set into a hard line and Hester shivered, grateful that she had not done anything to earn his enmity. ‘I must go tomorrow and collect my sister. I should be back by evening at the latest, my love.’ Heedless of the gasp of outrage from behind him, he kissed Hester rapidly on the lips, then stood. ‘Ladies, I bid you goodnight.’

There was a long silence as the sound of his booted feet echoed up from the hail, then, ‘He kissed you, he called you his love! Miss Hester, are you going to marry Lord Buckland?’

‘I am certainly not going to enter into any other sort of relationship with him,’ Hester roused herself sufficiently to retort. ‘Susan, please help me with these clothes or I declare I am going to fall into that bath fully clad.’

‘But… does he know?’ Miss Prudhome, who had been clutching the bedpost in shocked silence, finally found her voice.

‘About the colonel? Apparently he does. Oh, that is so good.’ Hester sank into the warm water, not even wincing as her grazed hands were submerged. ‘So very good.’

Guy walked the short distance to the Old Manor, reins loosely grasped in one hand. ‘Of all the cackhanded ways of proposing marriage, that just about takes the biscuit,’ he remarked to the big horse which twitched one ear in response. ‘Seems to have worked, though.’ He realised he was smiling in what was no doubt a thoroughly fatuous manner and got his face under control before his groom saw him.

He handed over the reins to the man and turned on his heel to look up at the lighted bedroom window in the Moon House. His imagination conjured up the image of a naked Hester, warm and sleepy, soaping herself languorously in the hip bath before the crackling fire. Despite the cold and his own weariness the thought was powerfully arousing and he stood for a moment, his eyes fixed on the window, letting the cold sap the heat from his body before going in.

Parrott was waiting, his face expressionless. Guy wondered, not for the first time, what he would have to do to crack that composure. ‘Send James over to the Moon House if you will, Parrott.’

‘Yes, my lord. The study fire is lit and I have put the decanters out. Was there anything else you require, my lord?’

‘No, thank you, Parrott.’ Nothing that I can have tonight, at least. ‘Was there something else?’ It was unlike Parrott to lurk, but that was the only description Guy could apply to his butler.

‘I was only wondering, my lord, if you will pardon the liberty, whether your lordship was intending to make any changes to the household in the light of…’ The man hesitated and Guy watched, fascinated by the phenomenon of Parrott lost for a word. The butler regained his poise. ‘Recent events, my lord.’

‘You refer to my imminent marriage, I collect?’

‘Yes, my lord. Permit me to offer my congratulations, my lord.’

‘And permit me to offer mine on your perspicacity, Parrott. You are the first to know of this and I would be obliged if you would keep it secret for the time being.’

Parrott inclined his head majestically and removed himself, leaving Guy to wonder just how transparent he was being. He poured himself a glass of brandy and settled in the leather chair before the fire. No, it would not do to have talk of this marriage bandied about until he had overcome Hester’s scruples. Of course she was reluctant, he knew she would be sensitive to what she might expect people to say about the daughter of a country gentleman- soldier marrying an earl.

But it made not the slightest difference to him. He loved her and that was more than enough. But he must move carefully, secure Georgy’s support and, once he had that, introduce Hester to various relations whom he had confidence would welcome her into the family. Not for anything would he have his Hester feel slighted or uncomfortable in her new role.

His Hester. He felt the grin curve his lips again and then let it slowly fade as he thought of the Nugents. The locket was still in his pocket and he pulled it out, letting it spin in the firelight. He already had a score to settle with